It turns out we were at the Huss Brewing Company opening just shy of a year ago and we still haven’t written about it. To be fair, you try writing DOZENS of words in row in one sitting.

Why did it take us this long to write about it? Well, I have prepared a list of potential excuses: Xavvi thought I wrote it, I thought Xavvi wrote it; we were distracted by The Decision 2 starring Lebron James and Rich Paul as a dick; I had to coax Xavvi out of his despair after he watched the Robocop remake; we were nervous about Stone Brewing Co. having to evacuate and Lost Abbey closing its tasting room because of a fire; my wife and I had a new baby that keeps us up nights screaming (hey, that one is legit!).

If any of those excuses sound valid to you, go with it. Otherwise, the reason we didn’t post this (or anything) for so long is because we are fat, lazy fucks. Okay, I said it. You happy now? Jerks.

Anchor Bar celebrated the 50th anniversary of Teressa Bellissimo attaining fried food enlightenment with the invention of the hot wing. I know we have been slacking on the content for a while (we are trying to do better, I swear!) but we couldn’t let a milestone like this pass us by without acknowledgement.

We want to give Teressa our genuine, heartfelt thanks for the glorious hot wing. Here’s to another 50 years of fried goodness.

The Keeper – From the creators of Fretzy’s Unfiltered Ale, and the people that brought you…pizza.

When the Phoenix Ale Brewery and NYPD Pizza hold an event offering free beer, free pizza, and free swag, you don’t ask questions, you just go. On October 17th, they held a launch party to celebrate their new beer collaboration “The Keeper”, a beer made specifically for NYPD Pizza locations. They were nice enough to put us on the list for the small, invitation-only gathering (which we appreciate as fat, poor drunks).

NYPD Pizza CEO Rich Stark was on-hand to tell a little back-story about The Keeper; the story goes that NYPD Pizza approached the Phoenix Ale Brewery to make a beer that would pair perfectly with a meat pizza. While trying to brew a few batches to find the right combination of flavors that would go hand in hand with all that pepperoni, cheese, crust and sauce, they took a sip of one particular brew and declared, “Yup, that’s a keeper.”

Xavvi told me about a place called Luxe Lounge in Maricopa that was supposed to have a killer wing challenge. I wasn’t worried.

In fact, going in I was a bit cocky. We laughed off the wings Zipps warned us about, we handled the Donkey wings at The Reef without issue, we easily (but fucking slowly) got through the hottest wings the Hops N’ Heat contest could throw at us, and I had already experienced The Toothpick at NY Boys. How much worse could it get?

This is how I expected it to play out: Xavvi and I would strut through the door and order up the suicide challenge wings. We would smirk at their warnings and sign their death waiver without a care. After the wings arrived we would pick each of the dozen wings apart with little fanfare. When we finished, we would raise our fists in the air like victorious boxers and we would head home to watch the the highlights of the whole event on ESPN.

We talked about what makes the food culture in Phoenix unique, our well known chefs, great places to eat, and what makes a great hot wing. We went into detail about Angel’s Trumpet ale house. Give it a listen and let us know what you think.

We saw local Phoenician, Jeff “The Beast Man” Butler, at this year’s Wingstock event in Mesa where he completely destroyed the competition by eating over two pounds worth of wings. Shortly after that he made the jump from amateur eater to professional competitive eater. He recently competed in the 2013 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest where he placed sixth with an incredible 31 hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes. We spoke with him to learn a little more about him and what it takes to be a professional eater.

We saw you dominate in the wing eating competition at this year’s Wingstock. You were still an amateur competitive eater at this point, right?

Yes, I was still an amateur eater. Wingstock was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go next year. Unfortunately, I can’t compete next season in the Wingstock wing eating contest because of my current professional contract. I will still show up to eat some tasty wings and hear some music.

After that event, what did it take to make the jump to professional competitive eater?

I always watched the Nathans Hot Dog Eating Competition on ESPN. When I found out the professional eating league, Major League Eating, was having a qualifier for Nathans Hot Dog Eating Competition in Las Vegas I entered the competition to get a chance to eat against Joey Chestnut and the best eaters in the world. At the qualifier in Vegas, I was a non-professional and beat all the Professional Male Eaters and a few select amateurs who were signed with MLE by eating 31 and a half hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. After the contest the MLE president Sam Barclay signed me to a professional eating contract.

Sometimes it’s easier to do more with less. Or at least, that’s what I always try to convince my wife of…

Compare the limited budget of a film like Serenity versus the limitless budget of something like one of the Star Wars prequels; even with all the money in the world, George Lucas couldn’t effectively tell a story to save his life the way Joss Whedon did on a fraction of the budget.

Yeah, sometimes less is more and “small” becomes “intimate“, the way the Phoenix Brewers Invitational Festival in a small patch of Heritage Square downtown last year managed to do. But then again, sometimes a massive spectacle can pull it off just right and become an instant classic event. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Scottsdale’s own Ameri-CAN Canned Craft Beer Festival.

Well, we finally did it. We took on a suicide wing challenge. We’d been talking about it basically since we started this website, but we had never actually taken that task on. Which is not to say we haven’t had some spicy fucking wing sauce: The Reef, Cogburn’s, and that God-forsaken toothpick from NY Boys spring to mind. Still, there’s something different about a wing challenge; pitting your heat tolerance and lack of better judgement against whatever terrible combination of chile peppers and hot sauce the cook can come up with to destroy your taste buds…

Rob, Editor of beerphxation.com and President of Arizona Society of Homebrewers, reached out to Xavvi over Reddit to let him know about the challenge at the Yucca Tap Room. This challenge was a little unique in terms of wing challenges though. The idea was that you have to eat a dozen of the hottest wings they could come up with and down an IPA. Beer and wings challenge? I think it was fair to say we were excited to cover the event.

I had never been to Yucca Tap Room before this event but my wife was surprised when I told her about it. she didn’t think that Yucca Tap Room had a kitchen to make any wings. Turns out they have expanded (probably a long time ago for all I know) so they actually have two rooms now. They have the old room with the stage and the place next door with a kitchen and a respectable beer list. I had a beer in the wrong room before someone got me pointed in the right direction. (more…)

The local beer community got some very sad news this past weekend. Greg Fretz, co-founder of Phoenix Ale Brewery, has passed away after a battle with throat cancer.

Fretz was a very influential figure in the local beer scene and, by all accounts, he was a genuinely great guy. He will be missed by very many people here. The community will miss him but it was better for having had him be a part of it.

Our thoughts our with his family. They have set up a fund to help them get through this difficult time:

After having thoroughly enjoyed the Phoenix Invitational Brewers Festival in December and muddling through the Spring Swing Beer Bash in Mesa this March, we can’t say enough about how excited we are that the Ameri-CAN Canned Craft Beer Festival is only 2 days away.

At noon on Saturday, May 18th, the gates will open at the Scottsdale Civic Center and the droves of craft beer fanatics drooling at the thought of getting their hands on over TWO HUNDRED different craft beers will pour in (see what I did there? POUR in? Oh man…) and the festivities will commence.

Tickets are $25 presale, $35 at the gates, and they do expect it to sell out. There’s also a $100 VIP option that includes entrance to theVIP area with catered food, private restrooms and a meet-and-greet with brewers. If anyone wants to gift us VIP tickets, we’ll gladly take you up on it. Please gift them to us now.

Yeah, that’s…I mean…is she your DD?(Photo stolen again from TheBrewBros.com …I swear that was a coincidence)

Games, Food Truck Food Court, live bands…BEER. How can you NOT want to go to this event? The only question is going to be how blurry your pictures will be at the end of the event, which ends at 6pm. The party will continue in the cab on the way back to my house, and then in the bathroom of a random Carl’s Jr. because someone will inevitably not be able to make it the whole way home without peeing their pants, and then eventually make it to my house where we will act like we’re going to party all night long and then fall asleep at 9 with a beer in hand after making a bunch of Totino’s Pizza Rolls.